The Situation
One of the tasks regularly carried-out at a major train maintenance depot involves bonding windows into place, ensuring they are effectively sealed against water ingress and corrosion. The ten-minute open time on the current adhesive forced staff to work quickly, often at the expense of quality. The product was also due to be discontinued by the manufacturer, putting pressure on the engineering team to find a suitable alternative product. The customer operating the depot contacted HAYLEY DEXIS | Rail, who in-turn invited Henkel to site.
The Solution
Both the representatives of Hayley DEXIS | Rail and Henkel were well-known to the engineering team at the customer’s depot. On first arrival at the site, once requirements had been defined, a demonstration of several suitable Henkel solutions was conducted. Following this, a desire for further process improvements was expressed by the customer, and an additional product demo arranged with the product that was later accepted as the solution; TEROSON® BOND 60 Controlled Cure. This would be used in conjunction with TEROSON® VR 10 cleaner, TEROSON®
Bond All-in-One Primer, and LOCTITE® SF 7070. Following two incredibly successful trials of the solution, it has been adopted in-full by the customer.
"A MINIMUM OF 60 MINUTES HAS BEEN SAVED PER WINDOW APPLICATION."
The Result
Within a few short weeks of the initial enquiry being received, consultations had been completed, and a solution proposed, trialled, and accepted. Due to the faster-acting TEROSON® BOND Primer and adhesive products, a minimum of 60 minutes has been saved per window application. The faster curing time on the new Henkel products now enable vehicles to be returned to full operation within just 1 hour. Previously, vehicles had to remain stationary in the maintenance depot for up to four times this length of time. A significant time saving was, therefore, achieved.
The selected product can also be applied using a conventional one-component dispense gun, eliminating the need to use complex and costly two-component guns with consumable mixer nozzles. Finally, the costs associated with the disposal of hazardous waste, a bi-product of this particular glazing task, has been reduced for the customer, with the products used also complying with the customer’s specific health, safety and environmental requirements.